Scott Walker blasts ‘unusual’ recall drive

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday attacked the recall process currently underway to unseat him, calling it “unusual” for duplicates and obviously fake names to be allowed on petitions.

“The whole process is pretty unusual. We had one of the local affiliates here [reporting] about someone signing it, proudly saying they signed 80 different recall petitions,” Walker said on “Fox and Friends.” “As we see it, you should only be able to sign it once and only once, and it should be for a legal citizen.”

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Walker: Recall process ‘unusual’

The Government Accountability Board, the agency which runs the recall process, has said that it will not eliminate duplicates or patently false names such as “Adolf Hitler” or “Mickey Mouse” instead leaving it in the hands of the campaigns, which would have to verify over half a million signatures in 10 days.

The Wisconsin Republican Party has filed a lawsuit to compel the board to check and eliminate these types of signatures.

“We’re going to protect the integrity of the citizen. It should be for people who have every right to sign it, but for those who don’t want to sign it, their voice should count as much as anybody else’s,” the Republican governor said.

Walker also admitted on Fox that he didn’t do enough to make the case for his controversial reforms, which he pushed after entering office earlier this year.

“I looked at it kind of like a small business owner. I said, ‘Here is a problem. Here is a solution. Now just go out there and fix it.’ And what I probably should have done is spend more time laying the ground work, making the case over and over again about how school districts prior to our reforms would have to pay tens of millions of dollars more for things like their health insurance,” he said.

Walker was also frank about how the state was not on track to meet his promise of 250,000 net new jobs by 2015.

“We had 16,000 net new jobs, versus 150,000 lost [over the three years prior]. If you break that down every month, no, it’s not on track. But if you look forward, we figured it would compound. Go back to that sports analogy - if you take over a 1-15 team, they’re not going to the Super Bowl the next year, but if you have a four-year plan, they are. Same thing is true with us,” he said.

Readers' Comments (170)

Go cry me a river, Scott. The recall laws were the same recall laws the Republican party used when it attempted to recall three Democrat senators. Additionally, the election board did not say it would "accept Mickey Mouse", etc. It said it would flag these names so your supporters could challenge them. The process has to work this way because if the burden of proof was on the persons supporting the petition, every signature would be challenged. This would force every person who signed the petition to show up in front of an election board and verify their signature. Finally, please stop the spin it was necessary to save jobs, etc. The unions conceded every financial demand you made, but yet you broke their union. But cheer up. The Republicans need a vice-presidential candidate for the upcoming beat down. Not only are you available, but you will have plenty of time on your hands.

So he admits he's a failure and won't accept Hitler's signature on the recall petition. I'd say Hitler was pretty anti-union, so were he alive he wouldn't have signed it. Walker's right on theat point. At least he didn't blame 'Obamacare' or excessive federal regulation for the lack of job creation in Wisconsin. Guess that talking point only works for non-job creating Republicans in Congress.

Wow, took until the second post for ACORN to be invoked by the right. Yes, we know, every Democrat ever to win office since the end of Reconstruction has won because of the corrupt registration tactics of ACORN. Score another one for the far right propaganda machine.

Fact: These same unions you demonize now existed in the nineties when the economy was extremely prosperous. They didn't seem to be killing jobs then. Couldn't have anything to do with those two wars and the Bush tax cuts that we're in the current mess we're in, could it? Nah, course not.

This is why democrats don't want photo ID they can't win elections without cheating and it appears same is true with signing petitions. ACORN tactics well and alive with thug corrupt unions.

If you chose to speak the truth, we have corrupt politicians being bought and sold by the Koch Brothers in WI and this process is the cure! The only thing coming close to cheating is Walker and his 'screw the poor' brand of politics.

Despite your ignorance, ACORN is dead. However, the Koch Brothers-funded American Crossroads is alive, well and supporting Gov. Walker in his losing effort NOT to get tossed on the political scrap-heap of history!

Question for dkc: Obviously you buy GOP talking points. So, you also believe that the US is a center-right country. If this is true, then why don't the Republicans throw open the polls to everyone? If they truly have the majority of the country behind them, then they shouldn't be afraid of all Americans voting, correct?

what I probably should have done is spend more time laying the ground work, making the case over and over again about how school districts prior to our reforms would have to pay tens of millions of dollars more for things like their health insurance,” he said.

First of all Welcome to political governance you idiot. This is the same reason Donald trump would implode. The Government is not a business. It's a daddy in charge of keeping the kids from killing one another and a mommy identifying who is and who is not getting hurt in the fray of life. After that is all about building things that private citizens can do in a hurry without dumping on other citizens.

Second, the Republicans are the ones signing the ficticious names to try to defame the process of the recall. These pukes have no shame.

Goofy Libs, on one hand they are clearly encouraging fraud by allowing Mickey Mouse, Hitler and folks signing their name to 80 different petitions, then they turn around and "Decry" the voter ID law that was just passed there?

I have a few friends that live in Wisconsin and they told me that the GAO, while attempting to help their Democratic cronies by allowing this fraud have really ticked people off to the point that they are siding with Walker.

Walker is running scared. If he were confident in his position, he wouldn't be screaming that the other side cheats. He was flying high while he was trying to play dictator and dump on public workers. That didn't work out so well for him, so now he's playing victim. That won't work either.

These GOPer despots need to be dethroned. Here's hoping for Wisconsin. In Ohio we unfortunately don't have a recall process for the governor, or Kasich would be sweating right now.

So Gravyboy I have one question for you. It is yes or no. Are the recall laws the Democrats are using to recall Walker the same the Republicans used when they attempted to recall three senators one year ago?

Gov. Walkner, like the rest of the Republicans, abused his power once in office starting with big tax breaks for the rich and corporations, where two of three pay no income taxes in Wisc. As he mentioned, he failed to create jobs. Walkner also pushed no-bid contracts without public scrutiny and while Republicans defended and protected the obscene salary and bonus contracts of the bailed-out Wall St. rich financial executives, they set about negating working class union contracts at the state level which is why Walkner's bullying tactics and disregard of the public has prompted his recall along with state senators.

Despite the Republican lies and propaganda, there is no significant voter fraud, see norvig.com to see actual facts and the results of the 2000-2007 GW Bush study. The GOPeons love to cite ACORN that is no longer in existence, yet cannot cite a single example of a conviction of ACORN for voter fraud. They did have an example, which they revealed themselves, whereby paid registrators made up false names and address, but still no voter fraud.

However, there has been a nationwide 30-state Republican effort at voter suppression effecting five million potential voters through the Republican drive for voter photo IDs, multiple IDs and documentation, eliminating early voting and sane-day registration, weekend voting, mail-in voting, not allowing college students to vote where they go to school, cadging voter eligibility lists, under-staffed, under-equipped, dysfunctional voting machines, GOP operatives not counting votes, sending voters to the wrong voting station, misuse of robocalls to block opponents call centers, or in the recent conviction of a GOP operative and campaign manager for former Gov. Ehrlich who used false robocalls to discourage black voters in Maryland. Their failed defense was that the First Amendent protected false campaign advertising. The GOP have gotten away with their dirty tricks in the past that cost the 2000 election and allowed the nightmare Bush-Cheney regime to take power and likely cost the 2004 elections with the stolen votes in Ohio and Florida.

Republicans have to cheat since they are a growing minority of overweight, selfish, shallow, and white voters and their 2012 presidential candidates are pathetic, even uninspiring to Republicans. Hopefully, Walkner and his GOP ilk will soon be gone.

And of course nothing was wrong with the 'chads' in Florida huh? Unions don't kill jobs. Case in point, Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

As the factory's tailors and seamstresses prepared to leave for the day on March 25, 1911, they suddenly found the building had caught fire. The women were trapped in the burning sweatshop and many died trying to force locked doors open. Others threw themselves from the windows.

After the incident, factory owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were indicted for manslaughter. But the pair was acquitted after less than two hours of deliberation.

Outraged by the verdict, union organizers from groups such as the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (I.L.G.W.U.), which represented female garment workers nationally, rallied for change. They demanded that better workplace safety laws be required.

Three months after the fire, Governor John A. Dix signed a law creating the Factory Investigating Commission. Following the findings of the commission, the New York State Legislature enacted 36 statutes to regulate workplace fire safety and ventilation, and to set minimum standards for working women and children.

And let's not forget that Scott Walker became Milwaukee County Suspervisor - NOT through a regular election, but through - are you all ready for this? He was elected in a RECALL election using the current rules.

Does Walker want to hire dozens of new government workers to check and verify every signature? Is he calling for larger government?

Walker was simply following the script handed to him by the Republican Party: Bust the unions, reduce voter participation in Democratic leaning populations, use the "Gingrich list" of buzz-words to attack Democrats.

Walker lied to the voters when he was running for Governor. Once in power, he over-reached. Voters have seen the Republican view of the future and they don't like it. Walker is a goner.